“I want your smiles to be real when they are pointed in my direction.”
“I cannot guarantee that.”
“That is not acceptable to me.”
“Get over it.”
“I will not get over it. You will stop giving me those fake smiles, Kayla. Save them for other people.”
“Andreas, you are not being reasonable.”
“I am eminently reasonable.”
She laughed. Loudly. She could not help herself. “I’m sure that’s exactly what Jacob thinks.”
“Jacob has no place in this discussion.”
“You do not get to tell me to just forget about someone like he never existed.”
“Watch me.”
“Watch me ignore you.”
This time the cabbie’s coughing could not hide his laughter.
Andreas glared at the hapless man and Kayla had never been as happy to arrive at her destination. The pedicab came to a stop in front of one of New York’s many tall buildings, the walls seemingly made of glass.
“You will love the view at this place. Men, they take their women here to impress them,” the cabbie said to her as he turned around to them.
Andreas grunted. It could have been agreement. It could have been Mind your own business.
“I’m sure you are right. Andreas is very good at guessing what I’ll like.” Except when it came to selling their company and uprooting her one certain sense of security.
* * *
The restaurant turned out to be on an upper floor with a view every bit as amazing as the cabbie had implied. Designed with the feel of Asian-modern fusion, the waitstaff were all dressed in crisp black and white and offered the kind of service found in only the most elite dining rooms.
They were perfectly solicitous, making sure she and Andreas had everything they needed. Kayla got the feeling that if they’d asked for something completely outside the restaurant’s purview, the smart maître d’ would have made it happen. The food was fantastic.
Andreas did his best to be an entertaining companion and that was doing nothing for Kayla’s determination to tell him no about the sex thing.
At one point she glared at him. “Would you just stop?”
“Stop what?”
“Being so nice.”
“You do not want me to be nice to you?” His brilliant green eyes widened with disbelief.
“No.” She let out a huff of frustration when his whole body got into the incredulity thing. “I know what you want and the answer is no.”
“Do not be so sure on either count, pethi mou.”
“Stop with the Greek endearments too. They aren’t going to work.”
“Work at what precisely?” he teased, his eyes glinting with devilment.
She humphed at him. “Whatever your plans are for later.”
“I assure you, you will like my plans.”
“You always think that. You are not always right.” The past forty-eight hours should attest to that definitively.
“I am almost always right.” The humor was there in his voice, right under the surface.
“You’re laughing at me.”
“Maybe a little. Relax, Kayla. You are perfectly safe in this nice restaurant.”
“It is a nice place. Very nice. It’s a date kind of place, or the kind of place you take a client you want to impress. I’m neither.” Both of them needed the reminder. “I’m not even sure how you got reservations on such short notice.”
“Maybe you are simply a woman I care about, whom I would also like to impress, hmm?” he said, ignoring her comment about the reservations.
But that was a real thing, so he had to have exerted some kind of influence to get them. It made her feel more special than she wanted to. “Right. The day you care about impressing me, I’m going to eat my straw walking hat for breakfast with hot sauce.”
“I hope you like hot sauce because I have always cared about impressing you.”
“Don’t be dumb, of course you don’t.”
“You are the only living person I do.”
“That’s... I...” She just didn’t believe it.
“You know I do not care if I impress my Greek family.”
“And yet you have this elaborate plan designed to prove to them how great you are.”
“Or rather how much I do not need them.” He said it like she should know this. She supposed he’d said it often enough.
She shrugged. She simply didn’t believe him.
He raised his brows. “Who else do I care to impress?”
“Your future wife? Genevieve? Other billionaires? I don’t know.”
“None of the above.”
“Then why would you care what I think?”
“Because you are my friend.”
“You say that like you don’t have any others and we both know that isn’t true.” Well, sort of. He wasn’t a social guy.
Andreas Kostas was focused on his goals.
“Acquaintances, contacts, even casual friends maybe,” he listed. “But not people whose opinions will ever matter to me enough to change the course of my life.”
“Mine doesn’t either.”
He looked around them, then at her, his expression belying her words. “And yet here I am, in New York, when I am supposed to be in Portland having a makeover with the matchmaker.”
“I wonder if she’s going to give you hair extensions and a man bun. They’re pretty popular right now.”
Andreas shuddered. “Not going to happen.”
“Oh, I know, she’ll put you in jeans every day and those graphic tees that cling to your muscles and show off all the goodies.”
“You like to tease me.”
“Well, she’s not going to leave you in your perfectly tailored bespoke suits and an overpriced businessman’s haircut.”
“Why not?” Andreas demanded, aggrieved.
“How should I know? You’re the one who said she insisted on a makeover.” Kayla thought he was plenty devastating just the way he was.
“Genevieve believes I am not approachable enough for husband material.”
“What kind of husband does she think you need to be?”
“That is a good question and perhaps one I should have asked before paying her a twenty-five-thousand-dollar retainer.”
“You think?” Kayla asked with heavy sarcasm.
Andreas frowned at her. “It is not as if I asked her nothing.”
“Oh, I’m sure.” Kayla started ticking off on her fingers. “Can you find me a bride who will fit these requirements? Will she be an asset to my business? She must be of a certain age and come from an acceptable background.”
“You know I am not seeking to marry some wealthy socialite.”
“That’s not what I meant by acceptable background. I know you well enough to know your list of background attributes ran more to the lines of came from a stable home so she knows what good parenting looks like for when you have children.” Which left Kayla out of the running right there. “Has an education, but isn’t a PhD because you’re enough of a chauvinist it would bother you if your wife was more educated than you.”
“It doesn’t bother me that you are smarter than me.”
“I’m smarter at computers, not more intelligent and we have the same number of years in our degrees. Do not tell me if I had a PhD in engineering it wouldn’t bother you.”
“I would be proud of you. Do you wish to go back to school?”
Sometimes Kayla did. She loved learning, but more because she thought maybe someday she’d like to teach at the adult level. She didn’t say that now, though. She just stared at him.
“What?” he demanded.
“My future plans aren’t your concern.”
“I do not agree.”
“Andreas, you’re going to be way too busy with your new venture capital firm to worry about what I do on the daily with my life.”
“That is not true.”
“You’re so stubborn.”
He laughed. “Have you met yourself?”
“Seriously, Andreas. You have this picture of how everything is going to be and you assume everyone is going to fall into it. That’s not the way the world always works.”
“As you have proven. We are in New York.”
“So you have reminded me.”
“It is a fascinating city, but I had no plans to visit this week.”
“Neither did I before you dropped your bomb.”
“It was not my intention to explode your life.”
“Just move yours forward. I know.”
“In my defense, I believed I was moving both our lives forward.”
“Because you are arrogant and believe you know what is best for other people.”
“Are you trying to pick a fight with me?”
“No. Just not letting you get away with anything. It’s what I do.”
“It has been too long since we shared a meal like this.”